HQ Trivia’s Final Broadcast Was One Heck of a Wild Ride

There are sendoffs, and then there’s whatever just happened on HQ Trivia’s final broadcast.

The popular live trivia game app company, which pitted contestants against countless others for a chance at real-world money, has shut down after a last-minute acquisition attempt fell through, leaving the company to lay off its 25 employees and shut its doors. What’s a broke company to do for their last ever broadcast? Host Matt Richards took $5 out of his own pocket for the show’s last prize pool.

And then he flipped off the audience and said he would crap on the homes of every troll in the game’s chatroom.

“Not going to lie, this [expletive] sucks,” Richards said. “This is the last HQ ever.”

With a bottle of champagne sitting front and center before the camera, Richards and co-host Anna Roisman proceeded to give not one single crap for their final broadcast, cracking jokes, swearing loudly, all while seemingly a bit drunk. The pair also jokingly begged the viewers to hire them and verged on tears every now and then.

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Some choice quotes.

“I was never allowed to plug [expletive] on HQ. Please follow my podcast. Unemployed With Anna Roisman.” – Roisman.

“I used to never wear pants here when I started at HQ Trivia.” – Richards

“Should HQ shut down? No, yes, or [expletive] no!” – Richards, posing a trivia question to the audience.

“I met a couple that told me HQ was part of their foreplay.” – Richards.

HQ Trivia launched back in 2017, quickly skyrocketing to popularity with trivia lovers everywhere hoping to make a buck. Original host Scott Rogowsky proved popular as well. So popular that he announced last April that he was leaving HQ Trivia to focus on a baseball show on the sports streaming service DAZN. The loss of Rogowsky, internal struggles at the company, and the introduction of an unpopular points-based scoring system helped bring the app’s popularity crashing down. HQ’s former CEO and co-founder Colin Kroll also died of a drug overdose in December 2018.

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The crew closed out the broadcast with an emotional rendition of “Memory” from the musical Cats, before Richards sprays the studio and himself with the champagne.

At least the hosts can say they went out with a bang, and then some.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.